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A question of length

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grantmac:
What would you consider the minimum length for a warbow to be? Reason I ask is I've got my hands on some 35-40 RPI Pacific Yew but it's only 73.5" long and I'd like to do a warbow with it. If it's not going to be long enough then it's just going to end-up as a regular target weight ELB. I may be able to split off a few billets to make a warbow length (without killing this stave) but as far as I know warbows were not made with billets.
Suggestions appriciated. Either way I'm going to finish up my current Maple/ERC warbow attempt to get a better idea of the tiller I'm after.
      Thanks,
             Grant

Yeomanbowman:
By the time you lose working limb length with the nock cones you will be under 6 foot.  I think it's pushing it a bit too much and if it did work I bet it would follow the string badly.  I assume you were thinking of a light warbow about 100 lb in weight.
Jeremy

ThimoS:
Out of the Mary Rose finds the lengths ranged to just over 6 ft and just under 7 ft on the norm. Unless you are very carefull while reduceing the wood you can count on atleast 1/2" coming off each tip. However you can still reach pretty high poundages with that length, if the wood is dense enough.

grantmac:
I think I will concentrate on just a target bow from this stave. I will probably be able to split off of few billets from this wood and try for longer length with those. As always, I'll let the wood descide what it wants to be. This seems to be fairly dense stuff so we'll have to see.
           Thanks,
                 Grant

bow-toxo:
The recipe for a longbow in the MR days was twice the arrow length plus a hand width, that is about 4 inches, for a flight bow that would have a short life, and two hand widths for regular shooting. For a 31 inch arrow, nock to shoulder of head, that would need a bow of 70 inches between nocks. Of course the bow would have to be tillered to the arc of a circle and be thinner than its width. Warbows were probably a little longer. I think your stave is long enough. It would be a pity to butcher it into billets.

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